


Encountering Dreams

by Kabutataga



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Nuzlocke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-14 21:15:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14144739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kabutataga/pseuds/Kabutataga
Summary: A young adult learns to break free, and make connections with Pokemon as a way to help conquer her depression, stress, and anxiety. Her closest things to friends are a peculiar Kabuto, and a Ralts named "Amelia". All three have lost their way, and they all help each other overcome their traumatic experiences.





	1. The Hermit, and the Hermit

**Author's Note:**

> This was a story that was originally published on FFN/Fanfiction.Net under the same Username. Both sites will keep the story up-to-date simultaneously. If you have time, please read the introduction paragraph I have included in that site.

An old Turtle makes his way through a hallway. He typically wasn't this early to wake her up, but something life-changing was afoot. The bedroom door was creaked open just enough to where he could slither through the open space. Once inside, he sprinted as fast as he could to her bed. However, because he was a turtle, that took a little longer than anticipated. The turtle never yelled, as his old, aging voice had to be used sparingly, but still had plenty of ways to wake her up. Her hand hanged from over her bed, and using that, the senile living lump of coal roasted her hand. "AIIIIIEEEEE!" She screamed, panicking for a material to help douse the embers. After getting a wet washcloth to extinguish the lit hand, she immediately went to look for the turtle to chew him out. "Torkoal!" She hollered: "You have to stop doing that! I already have no talent and now you wanna just fry up the things that keep me from being a complete lump of mush?!" Torkoal remained oblivious to her venting, as he knew his job was done, and he was proud. He directed her out of her bedroom door, and she reluctantly went downstairs.

"Oh! Good Morning, Vee!" It was her mother. Vee and her Mother typically avoid eachother during Sunrise. If they both aren't in bed, they're downstairs getting a glass of milk or soda from the fridge. The fact that her Mother of all people would be up this early was daunting. Vee knew something was going on. Before she came forward with her curiosity, she made small talk to try and maybe make her mother more cheery encase something was wrong. "We should really hire that Move Deleter and make Torkoal forgot all of his moves." she snarled, holding up her hand. Her mother giggled and went to grab an ice pack from the freezer, and wrapped a bandage around it to keep it from being too cold. "You know he's just trying his best, sweetie. And besides, he's just a silly turtle."

"A turtle that wants to kill your daughter, mom!"

Her mother chortled and gave Vee another smile "Torkoal can't even hurt a Cutiefly, let alone an 18-year old."

Vee then gave an impatient sigh, as she was afraid of asking what was on her mind, but knew she had to get it over with eventually. "What did you wanna talk to me about, mom?" She looked up. Her mother was holding an envelope to her mouth and flickered it once she saw Vee tilt her head. "It came in the mail this morning! Hurry! Open it!"

Vee became flustered while limpidly opening the sealed bit of paper. "What's this now?" She thought to herself. "You mean to tell me I'm waking up at the ass-crack of dawn to get first degree burns, and an eccentric mother that's almost never happy anymore? I mean, geez, I haven't even seen her this happy since he-" She stopped herself after her eyes auto-piloted through some words on the letter. "The Professor wants to see me?" Suddenly she looks up again to see her mother throwing confetti over her. "Congratulations, honey! You're getting your own Pokemon today!"

"What?" "What?" "What?!"

Vee gave a wholehearted laugh after taking in what she just heard. "I get it now Mom, you're making me have to adopt Torkoal." Her mother shook her head with a grin on her face. "You know I'd never do that, silly! Did you even read the full letter?" She skims through it once more. Yup. It' had the Professor's signature, address, everything. Typically when Vee had ever talked or interacted with the Professor, it was kept at a minimum, mostly because she never had full opportunities to meet him. He would sometimes visit the house, but she never left her room that often to welcome him.

It would always take a lot for Vee to leave her room, let alone the house. One trick that always works is to get an old, flaming turtle to come wake her up every morning. Even then, she would still be reluctant to leave. Ever since he left, nothing was the same. He was there for her in every step of the way. He would help her get ready in the morning, he would help her with trying to make her feel accepted in places she'd go, he would make cute flashcards that had of the types on them to help study for school, He was the one that adopted and gifted her Mother that very Torkoal.

Vee starred at the letter for a long duration until finally speaking.

"I can't do this."

Her mother's grin formed into a frown when her daughter whimpered those words. "What's wrong sweetie? What makes you reluctant to do it?"

"You know exactly what it is, mom. It's the same reason I don't wanna go outside."

Her mother exhaled and looked down on the kitchen sink for what seemed like forever. Vee was afraid to move as she had no idea what she was going to do or say. She kept still. Motionless; Halting her breath. Before what could have presumably been a dizzy spell from the lack of breathing, her Mother finally looked back up. "I know it hurts. I know he's gone. I'm always hurting too, dear. Sometimes I wish I could just crawl into my blankets and die right with you." Vee's reaction went from indifferent to concerned once she heard the unsteadiness of her Mother's voice. "You know this is something he's always wanted you to do. He's always wanted to give you one of your own Pokemon, and raise it with you. This is something he would have dreamed of doing." Vee couldn't fathom to have her Mother continue. She knew it hurt as much as it hurt herself. And even so, she was right. Even after they got Torkaol, Vee always wanted a Pokemon she could bring with her everywhere. A friend to keep her company while he was away. A partner that could last a lifetime.

Her mother opens her mouth as she prepares to complete more of her sentence, but Vee interrupts her before she could say anything. "I'm sorry. You're right, Mother." She gives a faint smile and they both embrace and let out tears together. "I"m sure he's watching over us now, and must be as happy as we are." Vee never believed in Faith, or had any spiritual connection, but for once, she concurred and imagined him looking down with that big, bright goofy smile he always had. This was it. It was time she set forth and continued his ambitions.

It wasn't long before Vee gathered her things and walked up to the professor's lab. It's not like she needed much anyway. All she brought was her old handbag, with a coinbag, a bottle of water, and a crumbled map so she could find her way to the lab. It was two routes north to get there, but thankfully the routes had safe trails so that nobody could get ambushed while getting groceries or maybe a couple of those Rage Candy Bars that are always a treat to snatch. The Professor was already waiting outside and made no hesitation to greet himself to Vee. "Aha, Vee! I was expecting you!"

"How did you know I was coming, Professor? Professor... Uhhh..."

Vee mumbles to herself potential names that sound 'professor-like' in her mind. "Shit, do I seriously not remember this guy's name?!" She roars in her head. "Why would this guy seriously give me a Pokemon if I don't even remember his name? It was even on the letter, for goodness sake!"

"Professor Larch." The man claimed. He puts his left hand on his chin as if he was about to drop something jarringly insightful: "And I didn't actually expect you, I just don't have anything better to do on days like this. It was worth saying that just for your reaction!" Vee gives a subtle glare as if she got caught while vulnerable. She quickly brushes it off and darts to the main topic "Soo... I, um, got that reader you sent."

"I'm sure you did!" Exclaimed Professor Larch. "Hurry inside, they're all waiting!" They all? "Am I getting multiple Pokemon?" Vee ponders to herself. "Does this man just want me to get overloaded on responsibility?" Once she steps inside, things turn for the worst. The building was nothing like she imagined.

It was spacious, dense, but with little to nothing to break the gaps. There were some stairs which lead to a higher floor, a rugged table, what looked like a cabinet, another table that wasn't made of wood, and finally, the door that Vee used to get inside. That's all of the furniture in the building. Vee was dissatisfied with the result, especially after realizing she can count every thing in the room on one hand. "I'm sorry if you were expecting more, but you can easily tell this is not the rich part of the region."

"No-no, it's okay!" Vee replies, to her dismay. Professor Larch invites her to one of the tables that just lied in the middle of the room and went to grab what seemed like a... tablet? Vee couldn't really tell what he grabbed as he rushed back to the table with his hands behind his back.

"Now, before we start this, I have some questions for you." Vee hesitated for a moment, only because she had a fear of taking any kinds of tests or quizzes. She never knew what was going to happen after she would Pass or Fail one. Already Vee was feeling uneasy about everything up to this point. "S-sure. I guess." The professor gives a huge grin:

"Are you a Boy or a Girl? What is my Grandson's name?"

"What?!"

The professor bursts into laughter and takes a minute to get to his senses again. "Sorry about that, that's just an old Professor joke." Something that was there to have lightened the mood now made the situation uncomfortable. "WhatdidIdowrongWhatdidIdowrongWhatdidIdowrong" She repeated in her head. "Why did I agree to do this? I should have just stayed home, I should have never gotten that stupid turtle to wake me up this morning... Urk, Urrrk, Urrrrrrk"

The Professor studies her, and tries to move forward to potentially calm her down. "Here, uh, are your choices, Vee." She looks up before what could have been presumably a breakdown and recollects herself after observing three, spherical capsules that lied right before her. They stood on top of a rugged old tablet, that looked like a rock of some sort. This was it. "As long as you promise to only take one, I can maybe give you some time alone. It's quite the decision, isn't it?" She nods and whispers a light "Thank you" before the Professor leaves the room.

…

Three Pokemon to choose from. One must be picked. While Vee was masterful with knowledge of Pokemon, such as types, abilities, stats, even Natures, she had no idea if she could translate to any of that into an actual battle. Trying to put all of her facts behind, she instead looks at each individual Pokeball. They all had names taped onto their respective capsules. Using only this, Vee tried to analyze each Pokemon and potentially what they could be.

"Turtwig..." She says to herself. "That sounds like a Pokemon that could... maybe take hits? I don't know, Turtles are tough, right? Torkoal is tough, and he's an old-ass turtle." She studies the outward biology of the creature; "A little root on it's head... overall green texture... Is this a grass type? Don't those things have a million weaknesses?" The longer she thought about it, the more upset it made her. Nothing was hitting the right notes for her. It seemed slow, it seemed vulnerable, and she already has seen enough turtles to know where things might go if she tried to befriended another one.

The next Pokeball was labeled "Chimchar." Peeking from the outside, Vee could see a small, hyper bipedal creature hoping around inside the Pokeball. It had a permanent, burning flame on it's lower back that it would sometimes use to create sparks in the ball. It seemed like it was having the time of it's life. "Well, at least this one seems fast." She wasn't particularly astounded by the obvious fact that it was a fire type.

The third and final choice was, to say, the cutest. "Piplup" was what the tag said. Vee was flustered by the cute penguin that was napping inside the ball. It even stretched in it's sleep and tossed and turned, just like how Vee would. "Water's an amazing type, right? Right. We'll make it amazing if we have to- you and me, little guy." The amplified yelps of joy signaled Larch to come back to the room.

"It seems like you've found one that suited you?" Vee confidently nodded and pointed out which one she was going to pick "Yup! I think I've made my choice. I choose this o-" Suddenly, the table started to shake and the Pokeballs started to roll around due to the quaking. The floor didn't feel like it was in the middle of a tremor at all. It couldn't have been an earthquake. Vee and the Professor look back down on the table. The tablet that was once restless was now vibrating immensely. "Umm, Professor?" Vee says, in the most stuttered and nervous way she caught herself being in a long time: "What is happening to that tablet?" Larch sighs and pushes up his glasses that were already way too small for him. "This isn't a tablet. It's a Fossil."

"A Fossil?" She says to herself. She couldn't remember much from what her school or he taught her about fossils. All she remembered was that Fossils were something related to old and dead Pokemon. And that there was some news article a few years ago that stated that technology for reviving them became widespread. "But wait..." She says to herself, bringing up more questions in the process. "How can you revive a rock? Is there like a chest-burster inside the rocks or something" Now she really regretted ignoring her Archaeology class.

Professor Larch grins and gestures a hand motion to Vee. He then darts off unusually giddy. "Juniper is going to be so proud!" Vee could hear him say to himself. She silently follows behind and takes baby steps to the second floor.

The second floor looked even worse than the first floor. It was the size of an attic, and the only piece of architect that was erected on the floor was some weird piece of technology that had "Devon" labeled on it. There was a dent in the piece of technology that the fossil fit perfectly in. Once the machine revved up, The Proffesor didn't hesitate in closing off that dent and putting it in some little capsule that was connected to wires and pipes.

"Professor, with all due and respect, you didn't answer my questio-" Larch snaps around to face her. His face looked far less friendly than it did before they went up the stairs. He had a flashy grin, stretching around to fully reveal all of his dimples and bruises. His eyes, while clear and beautiful before, were now growing bloodshot. Vee closed her lips and stepped back in silence and she witnessed the poor mean becoming increasingly maniacal and chaotic. The rest of the procedure was spent in silence with Larch zooming from one section of the machine to another, while Vee tried to made loose inferences on how the machine worked and what it was doing. After what seemed like an eternity of questionable progress in Vee's mind, the machine finally settled and the Professor raised his hand in the air like he was at the Pokeatholon. "It's awoken!"

Vee raised her head up in response to the voice, and she finally stepped forward towards the Professor. With every bit of sanity left, Larch gave his introduction speech for the revived creature.

He continues: "Brought back from the dead (by yours truly,) awoken after 3,000 years have passed, I give you: Kabuto!"

Larch steps back and unveils the creature that was seen within a cylinder capsule. It was a small creature that was almost entirely hidden by it's shell, which was brown and had two dots that were marked towards the front. The two dots looked somewhat like pupils. The Pokemon (At least that's what Vee thought it was) also had four stubby claws that looked like they were used as legs. It's most significant feature, however, were it's two giant red eyes that peered out from the shell. While the two "eyes" on the shell were lifeless, this pair, however, was everything but. The curious creature that the Professor named "Kabuto", was curiously looking around the chamber it was trapped in, and started to pick and scratch the walls. Vee was growing worried for it. "The poor guy looks like it's uncomfortable..." She thought to herself and paused. Before she could ask the Professor any more questions, he sprinted out of the room in gleeful joy. "No, Professor! Come on!" Before he could hear her, he was already downstairs and giggling like a clown.

There were so many questions Vee had for him. "Why did this Pokemon die, why can it be revived, and why could have it only been done now?" As she was about to go downstairs to follow him, she hears a faint, tapping noise. It sounded like sharp glass. She swings her head around and notices the capsule again.

It was Kabuto. It leaned it's head on the glass and had it's front legs up to it's face as if they were hands. It's big, dark eyes leered Vee over to the capsule again, and they both spend time just to stare. It was weird for her. Vee couldn't stop looking at the creature. Not only was it a unique specimen compared to any other, but, when looking at it, she can't help but feel like she can put her own shoes into the poor creature. It was caged, it was alone, it was unknown to most of the public eye. It was scared. "Maybe even depressed..?" Listing these things in her head made Vee tear up. She slummed to her arms and leaned her head on the edge of the table across the capsule.

"H-Help... m...e... Let's... t... outta... ere..."

She jumped at the voice she heard. She spun around and cornered herself into the capsule. Nobody else was there. She glances at the glass again. Kabuto was still in the same spot it was before, and continued to stare back. However, she noticed it was blinking profusely, and it's back legs were starting to get weak. She gazed upon it again, but this time focusing on trying to wipe off the tears that continues to pour down her face. As she rolled up both of her sleeves to try and do a full face-clear, she could hear the voice again:

"Hurry! Before he comes ba..."

This time the voice was much more clear, but still muffled. She paused her movement, which allowed her to eye on the creature once more. It was now slamming itself into the window, and it's eyes looked saddened, with each pound. Vee couldn't take what was she was seeing anymore and tried to get it's attention. "Stop it, Kabuto! Here-" She opened the capsule's hatch and Kabuto crawled out, finally resting on another area of the table.

"Thank you so much."

"HUH?!"

"Was this thing seriously the voice?" Vee screamed. Kabuto looked away as if it knew this reaction was going to happen. She knew a random voice in general was really weird, but didn't expect it of all things to have not only an actual source, but on a 2 foot shellfish-bug thing? "But- how?! Pokemon aren't supposed to talk, right? That's what he always told me."

"Who's he?" it replied, using a much more normal voice this time. Vee paused herself and then slipped on her own words "N-Nevermind!" Kabuto then got close to her and calmed his voice.

"I know you don't know much about me, and I don't know anything about you, but I don't feel safe here. I'm sure you don't feel safe about this place either" Vee acknowledged that fact to herself; this place is fucking shady. She knows her purpose was to just get a Pokemon, but she knew that Larch could have easily done other things with how the building is structured and overall it's emptiness and it's lack if immersion.

"Can you please help a little guy out?" he asked, stating his sex.

Before she could have been alarmed by, yet, another voice change, She could hear stairs being stepped on, and a door's knob rotating. Professor Larch steps into the room, with again, his hands behind his back. "Ahaha, I see our new friend has wandered off onto the equipment. No matter, because I had other plans with him." He reaches out and holds a Pokeball on one hand, but the Pokeball looked different than a standard red one. It was blue, and had black lines that were intersecting like some kind of web. "Can you do me a favor Vee, and move out of the way?"

This wasn't looking good. Without thinking, she grabs Kabuto with her two hands and makes hastes towards the door. The door swung outward from the room, which meant she could punt it open and accelerate down the stairs. They could hear the Larch yelling something. It didn't matter at this point, they just had to get out of there. Halfway through the steep steps, Vee trips and tumbles down the stairs, ending with her face being implanted on the floor. Her arms were spread out which allowed Kabuto to free himself and help hoist herself back up. The Pokemon didn't have anywhere near the strength to pick up a human, but his determination was enough to help Vee stand tall again. She needed to pause to catch her breath and full conscious again. But Larch was storming down the steps, now yelling some gibberish that couldn't have been comprehended at the time. But it was enough to remind Vee that they needed to keep going. Kabuto lunged himself back into her arms and the two rush outside, even ignoring the door that lead into the mess that is Larch's laboratory. The two run south, and don't look back for a long time. They make it all the way back to Route 1, which was just outside of her home, and finally collapsed on the dirt. Kabuto had no idea how to help her, but tried to comfort her. There was a steady transition of him laying across from her, to laying beside her, to her finally moving her arms and bringing him close to her. The two lied there in silence, refusing to get up. The shift in temperature after time had passed gave the two a hint that they should get up sooner or later.

Kabuto rose up first. He wasn't necessarily tired, but could feel all of the tension and anxiety that was orbiting around Vee. If he didn't know any better, she could have just been a gray cloud that soared still in the sky. The sky itself was looking more foggy than usual. It didn't help lighten the mood at all. The worst part was- Kabuto had no idea why she was so upset. He didn't mean to hurt her at all, but he was genuinely confused as to why Vee was still in tears. And at this point, even for a Pokemon that was dead for thousands of years, Kabuto was getting impatient.

He confronted her: "Hey, ummm, I'm sorry for whatever I did." Vee puts her hands down from her face and leans down to match eyes with the Pokemon. "You didn't do anything, I'm just an emotional person. I don't typically get in situations like that anymore." Kabuto gave a full-body sigh after hearing her respond positively. She continued:

"I just- all of this is happening so fast for me, and I didn't want anybody to get mad at me..." Kabuto used one of his front legs to hold up Vee's chin so she didn't slump back down. It jabbed her, but deep down she felt calm because of it. Worrying she might break again, he said the quickest thing that came to mind: "I'm not very good at this, but just know I think you're a cool gal' so far. Anything to get out of a place like that is a worthy pal in my eyes." Vee smiles after taking in his words, and lays a finger on his back, gently moving it down. "Thank you, again. I'm sure you'll be hearing me say that a lot." The two give a quick chuckle, and Kabuto fully lets go of Vee's chin so she could sit up straight. The young lady picks up the creature with her hands and continues to mildly let her finger flow on Kabuto's back. It reminded her of going to the beach with him, and collecting weird things they'd find on the ground. Shells, Wild Sandshrew, even a local brought their Azumarill and let it play with her. Vee always loved the water. She was never a great swimmer, but she loved being submerged and just floating underwater. It became such a habit in the tub that her Mother had to purposely switch from a bathtub to a single-stall shower to lower the risks of her drowning. She never felt in danger underwater, but was aware she could never be in it for long.

After awhile, Vee snapped back to reality, and tried to create a new conversation without getting too awkward. She used this as an opportunity to ask a question that's been on her mind the whole time: "How are you able to talk." Kabuto Shrugged, and then answered with his own question.

"I don't know, why are you able to hear me?"

"Can only I hear you? Is your mouth even moving?"

"Do you know if I even have a mouth?"

"..."

This conversation wasn't getting anywhere. It was becoming clear to her that neither of them knew what was going on. She was frustrated, but kept her cool and tried asking another question.

"Do you know anything about what happened before you, well, died?"

Kabuto gave a long pause to think about it, surprisingly, he had a positive answer for her. "Uh-huh. I don't remember much, but the last thing I can recall was, like, a giant flash of light. And then I was panicking and scattering around for some reason." Vee was glad things were getting somewhere, but Kabuto's replies were just making her more curious.

"That sounds like what happened when the meteorite hit our planet millions of years ago." she laughs. "I guess that at least explains why you weren't scramming around like a newborn baby!" This time she snorts and puts her hand over her mouth to weaken the laughter. Not amused (but inimitably laughing along), Kabuto nods and sinks slightly into his shell.

"Babies are evil... and so are you..."

The two gleefully share a laugh together, and end up smiling at one another after calming down. She's only known this Pokemon for maybe an hour, but he was delightfully making her happy. She hadn't felt this relaxed and optimistic in a long time. While being high on her positivity, she gets an idea. "Hey! There's a Museum just at the edge of Stewart Town. Maybe they'll know a thing or two about your biology." Kabuto sarcastically replies:

"Ohh I suppoooose so. Just so as long as it's not far away."

"I live in Stewart Town, silly."

"You don't live far away do y-"

"It's literally down this slope."

Kabuto now had to feel obliged. At this point, this nice young lady is helping him learn more about himself and there's nothing he can do to change that. In the midst of his blush, Kabuto remembered one thing.

"I feel like I shouldn't be seen by anybody. If Professor Lard or whatever his name was is that obsessed over me, imagine a building full of actual people like him." Vee concurred. Who knows what scientists would want to do to a Pokemon that has been dead for centuries, let alone one someone as insane as the Professor. She looked over at her handbag, which was splattered with dirt and sand, and got an idea. She reached for it and emptied the big pocket. "Jump in here." She said. Kabuto was catching on to what she was thinking, but was reluctant at first, he wasn't happy with the idea of being stuffed in another tight space alone.

"It'll be just fine, Kabuto. I'll keep the pocket zipped enough so you have enough breathing room, and I'll make sure you're never in there for long, promise." Kabuto took another look at the bag, and the emptied pocket. To be fair, it looked like there was a ton of space for it's size. It was also coated with fluff to keep things warm and soft. Kabuto gulped, but crawled his way into the bag and landed in it with no issues.

Vee felt reluctant to talk down at the bag, because from a stranger's perspective, that's exactly what it looked like. However, she tried to brush that off, as her priority at the moment was making sure her new acquaintance was okay. "How does it feel?" Kabuto gave a relaxed, slick "Okay" gesture with his claw. Or, at least the best he could do since it was still a claw. Vee smiled and closed the bag halfway. "Just for a little bit, remember that."

Stewart Town was nothing to write home about. Outside of Vee's house, and the Museum, there was just a few extra houses and a tenement at the end of the block. It wasn't exactly the most delightful place to live in. People mostly come down to check out the Museum but that's about it. There was also a building that Vee never really understood that was called a "Gym." It never looked like it was used, and by Vee's memory, it actually shut down about a few years ago. Either way, the main attraction to the town was the Museum, but residents would get pretty tired of it after awhile. Vee, despite being sheltered for the past couple years, always dreamed of living in the big city. She loved the idea of going to multiple different cultures and places that were just mere minutes away from each other. The cities were also well known for having a massive rebellious base, which suited her fancy, to say the least.

As Vee promised, it was a substantial short period from Route 1 to the Museum entrance. Kabuto tried to get a glance from inside the bag, and struggled in order to try and peak out. Vee jumped at the sight and tried to push him back in the bad. "H-Hey! Hey! Just a little longer!" Kabuto sat back in, grumpily accepting her demand. The museum looked quiet from Vee's observations, which would help in allowing to stay hidden. The Museum costed money, but their library was free to use. With them being out of plain sight, Kabuto finally peered from the bag, and gazed at the massive halls of literature. It wasn't particularly big from Vee's or anyone other person's perspective,but when you're a 2-foot ancient creature that has been dead for a long period of time, everything looks extensive.

"Let's see..." Vee started searching in the history section. Her idea is that maybe she can find more about the event that Kabuto was talking about, and possibly trigger more memories. It was a little dubious, but she stuck with her mentality that it all has to start somewhere.

One-by-one, Vee picked a book from the shelf and read the back of it out-loud, with each back cover coming with a question of "Does this connect or help you remember anything?" The ratio of 'Books to New Memories' was a clean 0:0. She frustratingly puts back the last book on the shelf, and starts mumbling to herself:

"This is so stupid, I know there aren't that many books here, but there's literally nothing that goes over anything in the Mesozoic period." She looks down at the thing she was trying to mostly avoid looking at while she was there: "What do you think, Kabuto? Do you have any ideas?"

"I don't know, actually. Maybe we should go- Oh shit!"

Vee turns towards the direction he was looking and sees what looked like a staff member walking right in their direction. Vee didn't have any time to close the bag without it looking too obvious, so she tried the best she could to "hide" the bag. She swung it around her back and gave a overly bright smile as the staff member came within talking distance. "Are you finding everything okay, Madam? You looked like you were having trouble." Vee didn't know what the correct thing to say was. She tenses herself by repling with: "No-no, I think i'm just browsing" Upon hearing this, Kabuto, from behind her back, pinches her spine as response to imply they needed her help. Vee cringes from the sudden, sharp pain, but tries her best to just let it slide. "A-actually, we needed help finding more information about a certain Pokemon." The staff member grows increasingly worried, as if she just stumbled across a maniac that was in the wrong alley. Vee manages to quickly calm herself and ignore the sharp pain that she induced. She politely asks the question: "Do you know anything about Kabuto?"

The Staff Attendant, who went by "Mary" according to her name tag, answered a big bright "Yes!" to go with her big bright smile. She directed her to follow where she was going to go and they head towards the "Scientology" section. Along the way, Vee slows down to purposely hoist her bag back to her side and to have a friendly chat with her acquaintance.

"Thanks for that, you know. It's not like I already have back problems."

"And you'd rather we keep aimlessly looking around the whole library skimming every book until we find it? No thanks, I actually wanna be sane."

Vee rolled her eyes and caught up with Mary, as they reached their destination. There was a peculiar Pokemon that was on a ladder, supposedly organizing books. Mary then opened her mouth to try and get it's attention. "Kadabra, can you be a dear and grab 'Fossils and Futility' for me?" The Pokemon replied with an emotionless nod. Kadabra then closed it's eyes and one book from the shelf lunged out and flew into Mary's hands. "You're the best, sweetie!"

"Woah!"

Mary looked surprised. "Oh? Have you never seen a Kadabra before? Their intelligence allows them to use Psychic powers and move things with their mind." Vee looked as if she just saw her life flash before her eyes. She has never seen a Psychic Pokemon up-close before. She was now eager to see more tricks from the Pokemon. "Now-now, young lady. Kadabra isn't here for tricks, he's just here to help around the building since one of our staff members hasn't been showing up for a long while." Vee felt sorry for both the missing employee, and the Pokemon. "Does that mean you're just laboring Kadabra?" Mary laughs "Ahahahaaah, no. Kadabra is happily volunteering, he loves knowledge as much as he possesses it, isn't that right?" She turns to Kadabra again, and he gives a profound nod; much more exaggerated than he agreed to help out. "Thanks again, hun!" Mary waves and Vee follows pursuit after giving her own weak wave to him.

Mary greets Vee to a long table and pulls up a chair for her. Vee sets her bag on the table, and cautiously rests her legs on the chair. Mary then opens "Fossils and Futility" and checks the Table of Contents before jumping to the page she was looking for.

"Sixty, Sixty-One, Sixty-Two... here we go! Read this paragraph, right here." She points to be a paragraph on the bottom of the page. The text was small, but short. Vee moves the book subtley enough so Kabuto could try and read what it said. It didn't work that well, but he at least appreciated her attempt. Vee began to read the paragraph in her head:

"Kabuto (I.E The Brachyoriea Leosoni) is a Rock/Water type Pokemon. From what is known, Kabuto is an ancient Pokemon that is said to have gone extinct. No real evidence of it existing in present day has been proven outside of a type of Fossil well known as the "Dome Fossil" (Pg. 45, 14, 414) Their presumed period of existence is predicted to be from 800,000 Century B.C, to 300,00 Century B.C. No other facts are known about this Pokemon, besides that it can supposedly evolve exactly one stage, however, this has never been proven."

The only other thing that caught Vee's eye was a Diagram that had a rough sketch on what these researchers though Kabuto looked like, and tried to label each part. It looked cool, sure, but it wasn't really what they were looking for. "Are you sure this is the only thing you have about the Pokemon?"

Mary closes the book, and frowns while turning her head away. "Unfortunately, yes. And any other information we did have, was destroyed in the Great War." She turns her head and she stood up and went back into Kadabra's direction "Maybe someday we'll find out information about it again. Facts are never left unchecked in our continuously growing future." Vee sighs and flimsily grabs her bag to follow Mary. "Even though it wasn't what I was hoping, thank you for helping us, Mary."

She turnes and gives another one of those big bright smiles after lending Kadabra the book. "My pleasure, you! Thank you for being honest and asking for help!" Technically, Vee was tortured by a tiny monster to ask for help, and she knew this, but she smiled and was appalled by the compliment. Vee turns to one of the corners and leans close to her bag. "Sorry we didn't find anything. It seems like nobody really knows who you are either." Kabuto did a midair swipe with his left frontleg and replied: "Ahhh, don't worry about it. The fact we made this trip was more than enough. Thank you." Vee smiled and patted the Pokemon on his shell. "Let's go to your new home. My mother would love to meet you." Kabuto expressed elation, and eagerly dropped back in the bag in anticipation. Vee resealed a part of the bag and made her way towards the exit. She gave one last "Goodbye" to Mary as she headed outside the building. Today was quite the day for Vee, and was more than ready to just lounge at home for the rest of the day. She may have only been outside for a few hours, but it was more than enough with how much happened. Not even counting her extreme neglect of going outside before today. "I bet Mom is worrying about me... hoping that I'm okay..." She says in her mind. "And you know what? I'm hoping she's okay too." The two reach the neighborhood. Perfect timing, the sun was starting to go down. Her Mother would have been peeved to know she was out after dark.

The two rush towards the door, and with each inch, the house on the horizon grew closer and closer to her. But wait...

Something wasn't right.

Before Vee could continue further the last block, she noticed something in front of her house. It was something that made her instantly drop everything. It was something that she wished for the least. It was something that would change her life at that very instant. Kabuto too peaked out from the bag, and stood frozen with her. They couldn't believe it was that something.

It wasn't even something, it was someone.

It was Professor Larch. He looks as if he was just leaving the house...

...


	2. Two Runs Don't Make a Right

"No Way."

"No fucking way."

"Did he seriously-"

Those three phrases were all that Vee could muster to herself, as she sees Professor Larch happily skip from the front porch to the road- galloping in the opposite direction. They were far enough to where he couldn't spot them as he made his way more south. The most terrifying part for them, was that they had no idea why Larch came over to pay a visit. He could have been there for any reason, but a positive theory seemed futile. No matter what purpose the Professor was there for, she didn't feel safe going through that door. She didn't want to talk to her mother, she didn't want to try and sneak to her room again, and she sure as hell didn't want to be on the very street she had her feet resting on. "Do other people know about what happened too? Is the Professor telling the story in his favor? Is he even telling the story?"

Despite all of these questions that continuted to confuse her, one thing was certain in her mind: she wasn't welcome at her own home anymore. Her mind formed into a 'Fight-or-Flight' response, she held her bag as stiff as she could, and ran away from her home. Kabuto, during her whole pause, was shifting from peaking out of the bag, to keeping himself slumped in her bag. He didn't fully understand why Vee was so reluctant to go home, but he didn't want to try questioning her. The tension was already high enough.

The two end up walking for hours. There was no clear destination in her mind, but she knew she couldn't stop. The sun had well past set, and the glimmering lights in the night sky were reflecting off the dirt trail. Despite her reluctance to think clearly, Vee did shorten her steps to view the moonlight beaming down on her. The sight was enough to give Vee the faintest smile again, and boosted her morale enough to make her quicken her pace again. Despite her continued efforts, both her and Kabuto knew she couldn't keep going forever. Kabuto tried to reform her that, yes, she is human, and will probably run out of energy and blackout eventually. She could feel her ankle pinch with every step she took, and her shoulders were unbuckling from the weight she's been carrying around. Her shoulders became so weak, that she had to hold the bag in front of her with her arms so it didn't anchor her down to the dirt.

By the time the sky gleamed a pitch black, far later than nightfall, Vee's chest was beginning to hurt. It wasn't clear to her right away that she was starting to lose her breath. Kabuto, remaining restless under the blanket of fog, was only able to tell once he heard her gagging on her own spit. It sounded similar to a broken train whistle, in that of which was fumed by shreds of rock and lump. He had enough. This was now at a point where his silence was now causing others pain. He thought she knew what she was doing, but this was now the time for to speak up.

Kabuto sprung himself out of the bag and halted himself in front of Vee, acting as a blockade. "You're not acting right. Let's stop."

She looked down at the determined Pokemon. His claws were dug into the ground to help keep his statue. Even though she could easily walk around him, or raise her leg up and walk over him, she didn't. She couldn't. Her vision was too blurry under the fog, which intensified as they stood there in silence. The only thing that caused her muscles to halt were two big, red, spherical eyes she was growing familiar with during the previous 12 hours. Using the brainpower she had left, she lowers himself onto the ground and sits up crisscross. The two continue to glare at each other. One growing confident, and the other growing stubborn. He finally speaks again:

"We're stopping again at the next town."

"..."

"We're not walking all night."

"..."

"We're not going any further until you relearn to use your lips to respond"

She couldn't fathom a facial response to properly respond to his insult. She couldn't comprehend half of what he was saying. She couldn't even bother to replace the other half of his words with "Blah blah blah." At this point, they weren't even words. And words were starting to lose meaning. All she really wanted deep down was to go back to her home, lay in her nice cozy bed, have her... r... tuck... h... r... and... sa... "I... ve... o..."

.

. . .

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . .

It was dark.

Vee could feel her entire body swell up. It felt numb, like being covered in fiberglass insulation. She couldn't speak, she could only sit there in the darkness, and cry. She sat motionless for what could have been hours. The vast emptiness that endeavored her vision seemed eternal. She couldn't help it. She tried to fight the numbness, but nothing was working. She couldn't flail her arms, she couldn't stand up, she couldn't even stimulate her legs to try and kick something. The more she fought, the more paralyzed she became.

She gave up.

She tumbled over and smacked her head on the shadow beneath her. She was hopeless, this was it. She was begging for the sweet release of it all. As she could notice her vision fading, and her entire body losing consciousness, she could feel a voice dash along her ears.

"Did I ever tell you to lie down? Look at yourself. If you really belonged to me, you wouldn't have even considered giving in. Pathetic."

It was his voice.

. .

. . . . .

. . . . . . . . . .

It was bright.

When Vee's eyes opened, the first thing she saw was the giant, beaming sun ascending from the horizon. She stood up. Her body, now somewhat functional, was able to easily hoist herself off the ground. One more quick observation found that her bag had a big, circular dent, and was right underneath her when she woke up. She was also off the trail, but only about what seemed like a few feet away from it. "Did... did I pass out? What the hell happened last night?"

Suddenly, she hears a mumble from the bag. She inferred who it was, but hesitated to check inside on the off-chance that something happened, and she forgot. "No, this isn't 'whimpy-coward' time, This is 'help-my-acquaintance-time." She zipped open the bag and... found the least worrisome thing she could think of. It was Kabuto, huddled in his shell. He looked as if he too, was just waking up. She tried to get his attention peacefully.

"Hey there, are you up and running?"

Kabuto slumped over to face her. At first, he showed anger with his eyes looking angry and discontent, but instantly changed his expression the moment he noticed who was calling him.. Vee yanked her head back from the sudden appearance change, and opened the bag more to shower it with the newly born, tangerine sun. The creature scrambled in the bag, and peeping out of it soon after. "Yeah-yeah, I know, I'm working on it!" he screamed, continuing to shuffle around from inside the bag. Vee spoke to him from the outside. "Well whenever you're done, I want you to do me a favor."

This period of quietness allowed Vee to think about what happened last night. She thought long and hard about the events that could have happened and tried to make sense of them in her head.

"Let's see... I remember we started running, and then I shifted to walking... and then... I kept walking some more?" Vee sat down with her legs tucked into her chest to try and concentrate better. "And then... I got tired. Yeah, I remember that. And then... something with Kabuto? I think he crawled out of the bag or something, and then he just stopped? But why would he ever do that?" She rested her chin onto her knuckles to try and put a little pressure on her head. She'd sometimes do this as a way to think without harming herself. "I guess I was just too tired to remember the rest. But wait..." She then thought back to how she woke up. Her head was rested on the end of the bag. She didn't remember putting herself on there. "...Did I do that consciously...?"

Suddenly, Kabuto emerges from the bag and crawls onto Vee's kneecaps. He was a little heavy, but she didn't personally mind the extra weight. Kabuto took a deep breath and re-adjusted himself so he could be comfortable resting on her knees. He then turned to her to speak: "I'm sorry if I sound a little bitter, I, uh, didn't get much sleep."

Vee suddenly gasped; adding that clue of knowledge to the puzzle. "Wa-Was Kabuto watching me sleep? Why would he do that?!" Vee caught herself zoning out before she could question herself any further. She looked directly in his bloated eyes and replied to him. "Oh, don't worry about it. You've got an entire day to nap, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so, huh?" He bashfully puts his left front claw over the edge of his shell and rubs it before slumping down, almost as an imitation of what Vee was doing with her hands. "Anyway, what was that favor you wanted from me?" She puts her hand over his shell and gently rotates his body to face the distant ball of light. "Can you just watch the Sunrise with me? At least for a little bit?" Kabuto shook his head. He turned behind him to make sure he heard that correctly. 'I mean- whatever." She smiles and pats him on the back of his shell.

"Thank you. I've just I haven't seen the sun rise like this in a long time."

"Huh? Do you just sleep in late?"

"N- Well, yeah. I guess I do sleep pretty late." Kabuto turned his head back again to see the smile Vee just had, withered away. Not exactly into a frown, but nothing close to that gleam of happiness she just had. Vee felt reluctant to continue, since she wouldn't know how Kabuto would react, outside of the fact that in her mind, he was still just a Pokemon. Even if he was more sentient than a rock, even though he had the unknown willpower to speak, she couldn't bring it in her to be honest with the events that happened long prior to meeting him.

This time, Kabuto didn't look back at her, and instead kept his eyes on the sphere of fury. "When I was younger..." Vee says without precaution, "I used to think the sun would get reborn every day." Kabuto still didn't look back at her, but Vee noticed him tilting his head in a questionable manner. She continued. "I thought suns were like some creatures, in that their lifespan was just really short, and that a new one would just take it's place each day."

"And how does that work in terms of a new sun being born and coincidentally rising and setting at the exact same time as all the others?"

Vee shrugs. "I dunno. I guess I didn't clearly think it through back then." Kabuto gave a quicker-than-usual chuckle and continued to lay motionless on her knee. They continued to watch the sun rise together in silence. Despite the feeling of tranquility from the trees and the emptiness of the dirt path, both of them felt tense about the day. They both knew, at some point, they would have to get a move on. Vee was having slight considerations of going back home, but didn't know why. She shuddered at the idea of having to meet her mother and explaining to her what happened, or even vice versa. But, still, in a way, she just wanted to feel loved again. Or at the very least, pretend she did.

…

Two digits worth of minutes pass before the two are on the trail again. This walk was going to be a little different from last evening's, however. And she knew that the second Kabuto exposed his idea to her.

"So, lemme get this straight." She says to him, who was lazily hanging out of the bag and bathing in the morning sunlight: "You want us to stop to a town; an area that has people in i-" "Shhhhhh, let me explain it better." Kabuto interrupted her, and climbed further out of the bag to better articulate his plan. "We should stop at any kind of civilization, because we need help finding some form of home and food. You're a sentient creature just like me, after all." Vee was miffed about the tone of his voice during the rephrasing, but she knew he was onto something. She remembered reading about something on the news a long time ago about places that would heal and take care of Pokemon for free. Maybe they'd have something like that for humans too? If Pokemon healthcare is free, why couldn't people healthcare be too?

"Alright, I concur." Vee takes her hand and gently grasps on the tip of Kabuto's front left claw, and shakes it in agreement. Kabuto sighed again. "Thank goodness, the last time I tried to tell you all of this, you were just out of it. It was pretty funny to see."

"What?!" Vee shook her head and widened her eyes.

Kabuto giggled then turned away. "Nothing, never mind!" Vee showed suspicion, but for the most part shrugged it off. What her eyes were immediately gravitated on was a wooden sign near a bank in the path. Kabuto tipped his shell away from her direction once they approached the sign. He remarks: "I'm going to pretend and know what that sign says, because I actually don't know what that sign says. What does that sign say?" Vee rolled her eyes with a smirk on her face, and proceeded to spell out the words written.

"Luxembourg Town: 0.5 Miles"

Kabuto put the pieces together in his mind, and jumped when he figured out what it fully meant. "We- we're almost to urbanization!" He called. Vee nodded in agreement and acknowledged his excitement with a little bit of her own. The more Vee had thought about it, the more relieved she was knowing she agreed to find a place to decompress.

The rest of the walk took endurance. It was entirely uphill, and it was populated! There were people that would give cold shoulders to Vee. Even with Kabuto kept hidden, her thick, puffy bleached hair combied with her dark over-sized hoodie stood out among the field. One peculiar trainer halted Vee and tried to get her attention before she continued going straight. "You must be a trainer! And so am I! When our eyes meet, a battle must shall comence!"

"What?" Vee thought to herself.

The young boy tosses a Pokeball in between them. "I choose you, Pidove!"

"What?"

"Come on! Throw out a Pokemon so we can fight already!"

"WHAT?"

Vee was all kinds of confused. Her knowledge of types and abilities couldn't prepare her for an actual battle, let alone one where she has to use a Pokemon that couldn't show it's face to the public eye. Vee grew sweat from her forehead, and tried to get the young boy's attention. "Wait, stop! I'm not a trainer, I don't fight." The kid laughed and gave a smug response: "Really now? Then I guess that Pokemon you have in your bag is just some rock or something, huh?"

Vee jumped back and stood frozen in place, screaming in her mind: "How the fuck did this kid find out about that?!" She turns to her side and notices her bag was completely unzipped. Inside was a shimmering, fearful creature that had his face down on the bottom. Vee frowned and angrily peeked her head into the bag. Her whispers sounded fierce and aggressive. "Were you just peeping outside?"

"I-I had no idea that kid was looking, I thought the coast was clear and I was just about to jump out and get some sun." Despite her knowing that she might have been too forceful with her voice, she was too stressed about someone finding out about him. "Although..." She thought to herself. "He is just a young kid. He shouldn't know that much better."

Vee looks up from her bag and confidently approached the child. "Fine, I accept your challenge." Her bag vibrated, and she heard a whimper echo from it. She reaches down and picks up the shaking hermit from her bag, and gently sets him down on the ground.

"This has to be easy, right? All we gotta do is hit that thing, like, three times, and it's a goner!" Vee didn't know what moves Kabuto had, but she knew that some common first-moves that Pokemon can have are 'Scratch, Pound, and Tackle.' "Most if not all Pokemon start with some variation of those moves, I'm sure he knows at least one of those."

She closed her eyes with a smirk, and swing her fingers toward the Pidove in a nostalgic attempt to relive some of the role-playing she did way back then. "Kabuto, uuuuuuse Tackle!"

"..." Kabuto paused.

"..." Vee paused.

"..." The young boy paused.

"Oh goodness no, he doesn't know that, does he?" The young bay gave another childish laugh and knelled down to his Pidove. "This is gonna be great! Free experience for you, buddy!" He hoisted himself back up and shouted his command. "Now's your chance Pidove, use your Gust attack!" The Pidove started flapping it's wings along the sandy, rocky path and blew the dusted terrain right into Kabuto's face. As the dust drafted, Vee rushes through it in a panic, and tries to find him in the breeze. "Kabuto? Kabuto?!"

The dust quickly subsides, Kabuto can be seen standing tall- Not even a single scratch. He turned towards the anxious novice and winked at her. "Oh wait, that's right." She mumbles to herself. "He's Rock/Water, and flying doesn't do anything to Rock types." Vee sighed desperately, and fixed her hair so it was tucked back into her ears. Before she was about to call out her next move, she tried to rationalize a move that Kabuto could potentially have. "Well, let's see... he has claws... and they kinda hurt..." She gently lays a finger on her chin, and openly smirks while stepping forward. Kabuto, who was previously shuddered in fear, was now on all fours, and ready to pounce. This was the first time in their escapades so far that they've put their faith in each other. Vee confidently regulates him the next move. "Kabuto, try using 'Scratch!"

The shell creature instantly sprung up and dived right onto the poor bird. He dug out one of his front claws and swiped it across the Pidove's face. Vee winced at the pidgeon, as that seemed like it was in pain, but she brushed it off. It felt good to not only have her first Pokemon battle, but to win it.

In one strike, the Pidove collapsed on the ground, motionless. "P-Pidove?" The boy cried, with his eyes growing tears, and his voice becoming more bitter. He sobbed out and pointed directly at Vee.

"You did this... You killed him!"

"What?! No I didn't. I seriously couldn't have with just that one mov-" Vee stopped herself and took a closer look at what was once a lively organism. The Pidove had his neck cut open, with no sign of breathing, heartbeat, or pulse. It was true, they killed him.

The boy was at a lost of words, only being able to grunt, cough, or choke on his breath. He held the Pidove close to his chest. He continued to cry into the corpse; the world in Vee's eyes' stop. The entire emotional chart falls onto her shoulders, and her pupils shrink with learning that fact that she just killed something. Something innocent. The only one that could be any more innocent was Kabuto. Even though he was just following commands, he felt just as much of the weight of the situation as she did. He hurried back into the bag and hid himself from plain sight. Without thinking, Vee cautiously tries to approach the boy. "I'm really sorr-"

"Stay away from me! Just take my money and go!"

The boy tossed bills as if he was being throttled the money. After he gave what seemed like everything he had, he took the deceased being and ran off in the opposite direction. He ran to what seemed like the populated area of the forest, where the two had passed just moments before. After minutes of long silence, with just Vee and her Pokemon to think about their damage and pain they caused, Kabuto takes his precious time to poke out of the bag one more time.

"Do you think we should g-"

"Yes."

Without hesitation, Vee rotates her body to the hill's Zenith, and sprints to the top.

...

Minutes pass before the two make it to the apex of the hill. They were rewarded with a beautiful sight of the town, and it's outskirts. The town was spacious, but there were only a few building in between all of that denseness. It reminded them of Professor Larch's lab. The thought of the professor's existence quickly flew to the back of Vee's mind. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. From the distance, she could spot the building they were looking for. It was a bright, orange building filled with glass-stained windows and what looked like a sliding door on the front. It looked to be about half a dozen stories high. The thing that gave it away, however, was a big white Pokeball symbol that rested ontop of the door. Vee swings her bag to the front of her stomach and pounds the bottom of it. Once Kabuto emerged from it, she held him up in one hand, and pointed to the building with another. "That's the Pokecenter I was talking about. That has to be it."

Kabuto gave a mitigated sigh in response to what she saw. He wasn't exactly sure what the building was going to be like, and neither did Vee, but he was just happy she listened to him at that point. Trying her best to forget the event that recently took place, Vee jogged downwards towards the city as fast as she could. The adrenaline rush wasn't something she was used to, but it felt pleasing to her body after not feeling it for so long. The run was short, but it was just enough to make Vee motivated enough to continue persevering her goal without immediately following asleep after doing something sporty. The two in no time at all reach the gleaming orange building, and the slider door automatically opened itself. They both took a synchronized breath, and stepped in.

The Pokecenter was bright and friendly on the inside. It wasn't exactly wide, but there seemed to be plenty of doors which lead to extra rooms. There was one area that was entirely blue. All it had were a counter, selves full of trainer goodies, and two clerks working behind it. One of them looked overly enthusiastic, and the other looked like he worked in the wrong store, with his grumpy frown and hair that went over his eyes. The back of the main room, which you could easily get to by just walking straight from the door, was another big counter that had all kinda of machinery behind it. There was also a lady in pink that worked behind it, expressing a permanent smile on her face. The two curiously spin around at the bucolic vibe in the air; everyone seemed to either be relaxed or overwhelmingly happy. For once, Vee could feel a sense of tranquility in her heart. Her home was never calm, because she could, at any second, get a beating from her mother for not doing something perfectly. Don't even talk about what he would do.

Vee, on her toes, approaches the lady behind the red counter. Her name tag had two cute hearts stickered onto it, and all of the text seemed printed, meaning that it probably was all named on a computer. Vee could appreciate the enthusiasm in it. It simply said: "Hi! I'm: Nurse Joy!"

"That's weird..." She thought to herself. "Isn't the colon supposed to come right before the name? It kinda lookes like 'Nurse' is part of her name." Nurse Joy was busy putting more supplies onto the counter, and didn't recognize the sudden arrival of the young adult.

"Oh gosh! I'm sorry! Good Morning, welcome to the Pokemon Center!"

Yep, this was it.

"We restore your Pokemon to full health, would you like us to rest your Pokemon?"

Vee shook her head and politely informed her of what she was there for. "Actually, I was wondering if you had any extra rooms available for, uh, people." Nurse Joy's face sparkles as she nodded with her upmost pleasantness. "Yup! We have plenty of rooms in the back!" Both Vee and Kabuto's eye's twinkle in conjunction to one-another as they hear those words spelled out to them. They both were amazed and didn't want to admit that the other was onto something the whole time. If they could at the moment, they'd give eachother a tight hug for being smart and somewhat saving eachother's life.

Nurse Joy continued to lecture: "Just a reminder, however! Only the first 24 hours are free. It costs 6000₽ for each extra night you spend here! We also provide a nice selection of food for both you and your Pokemon, and please make sure to blah blah blah blah." Nurse Joy talked about the terms and conditions for a decent chunk of time, but finally quieted down after Vee nodded in agreement. "Great! There's only one more thing to do!" Nurse Joy grabbed a hardcover book and handed Vee a pen with a little egg eraser on it. "Just sign in, and I'll fetch your room key!" Vee was never great at cursive, even with how short her name is, she never put effort into making three letters fancy, because, well: it's just three letters.

The two trade items and Nurse Joy gestures a hand in the direction of her room. The very first thing Vee did when she got into her room was shut the door quickly behind her, ran straight into the bed, and produced a vehement groan into the sheets.

The room itself was small, but almost felt like at home. The roof was perfectly fixated by wooden tiles, There were only two separate rooms; the bedroom and the bathroom. The bathroom had an unusual amount of hair and hygienic products. When Vee had to use the bathroom later on, her first reaction when stepping inside was a loud "Who cut off their hand, turned it into scissors, then cut it off again?!" The scissors inside were alarmingly big for what was just supposed used for basic hair trimming. Well, it's like i'm not use it anyway" Vee thought to herself.

Hours pass. At this point, they're completely fatigued. On top of everything they've been through for the past two days, they couldn't fathom the reality that they're both now in. Vee is now on the run, and for a reason she doesn't even know. She just knows it can't be good. Kabuto is different. Vee is his only source of direction in everything that's new to this world. Despite apart of him feeling excited about all of the new things he's encountered, he can't help feeling like parts of himself are missing. None of that is even mentioning the extreme guilt he now carries by putting someone's life at risk, just for existing. How are you supposed to live with yourself when you come to terms with something like that?

The two talk about these problems for hours. The conversation volleys between the two, and they could never catch a break talking about their problems. Despite these somewhat serious talks, Vee never has the urge to talk about what her life was like before she met Kabuto. She didn't wanna bring up her reason for staying so sheltered, she didn't wanna mention anything about her mother, and she sure as hell didn't wanna mention him at all. Although these issues never left her mind, she still had plenty to talk about; most notably what happened to the Pidove.

"Ahh, it was probably just caught anyway."

"You think so?

"Sure! It gave me a better reason to rip it's guts open!"

"Kabuto!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding! I honestly didn't know that one scratch was going to do so much to the poor fellow. I didn't want it to die as much as you did."

Vee sighed and looked upward at the roof on the building. "Yeah, I know. But if we're going to actually train more, we need to figure out what your strength level is."

Kabuto bopped up in curiosity. "Would you want to be a trainer? "

"I don't know. I guess I just have the worry of having Pokemon die now. Because I apparently didn't know that could happen until earlier today."

This time, Kabuto jumped up and landed on all fours instead of being entirely flat on the bed. "Wait, you mean to tell me you think Pokemon just live forever?"

"I-I don't know! I was never taught about the death of Pokemon! I was always told Pokemon just faint, or take a power-nap!" Vee nervously chuckles and she throws her arm over one of her shoulders. Kabuto shook his head and lied back down near her. "What kind of parents were raising you?" Vee tries to ignore the events of the past to give him an honest, sincere answer.

"A kind that can't be matched."

...

The night goes on, the two start to settle in and knew their day was coming to an end soon. After a coin flip with one of the 100₽ that was acquired from the young boy earlier, Vee gained a whole side of the bed while Kabuto had to sleep on the end of it.

"Awwwww, you're just like a 'wittle puppie!" Vee playfully pouts to him. Kabuto doesn't reply and just nods in disappointment. Their plan for the rest of the night was to order room service, and then sleep for the night. While they were waiting for their order, they took a break from talking philosophical and watched television. There weren't that many channels on it, and most of them were pretty garbage. There was one that was somewhat amusing, which was a Smoochum yoga instructing class. Had the two have any energy left, they may have kept it on and dishonestly tried some of the techniques. There was another channel, which is what the two ended up watching all night, was a network station located in Jubilife City. Vee had never been there, but heard about all of the amazing personalities that end up there. The channel browsed through a couple of shows which were all able to make the two laugh loud enough to where the neighboring room had to tell them to shut up. The last channel they were going to watch was the "Jubilife TV" TV station. The name was pretty confusing to them, but they gave it a pass. "Must just be a Sinnoh thing, huh?" Unfortunately for them, the name of the show was going to be the least worrisome thing about it.

The program starts:

"Goooood evening, people from all around the world! I'm your host, MC Tabwoos! And boy, do we got some interesting topics for ya'll to hear. Not even your mother's boyfriend could miss out on these headlines!

The two inch closer to the television, anticipating the discussion.

"Our top story tonight: A rare and mythical Pokemon has just been discovered alive, after being dead for centuries!"

The broadcaster revealed an image that looked a little too familiar.

"The bounty on this mythical Pokemon has been raising in price by the minute! Journalists say this revival was done by the one and only Professor Larch!" We'll bring you to him now to learn more about this mysterious creature!"

The two's mouth's couldn't have been any larger the moment they see the Professor, in all of his smug, disgusting glory, waving and chatting it up on live television.

"My Sincere thanks, Tabwoos. This Pokemon, known as "Kabuto", has been extinct for over 30,000,000 years! The only way this species was brought back alive is by the thanks of me!"

Several reporters nudge their microphones closer to him and ask him the question: "If you're the responsible for this revival, where is it as we speak?"

"Now-now, if it was that easy, I would have been able to keep it in control; no problem. A peculiar pest barged into my laboratory one day while I wasn't looking, and snatched it from me!"

The audience gasps and multiple questions pop up at a time. The one the Professor chose to answer was "Do you have any idea what this thief could have looked like, sir?"

"Oh yes, I was easily able to acquire a photo thanks to one of my many cameras hidden around my building. She has bleached, voluptuous hair, a pure dark hoodie, and eyes as blue as the ocean."

Larch then held up a photo of Vee that looked like it was taken about a year ago. She wasn't wearing the exact same outfit in the photo, but the hoodie was the same, and her hair was still large and blond. Before the two could make any noise to one another, Larch concluded his interview:

"As we speak, these two together are for sure on the run! If you find them: capture them, at all costs. Take them back to me, and i''ll give you a hefty, million-dollar reward. Thank you again for having me, Tabwoos!

"Thank you, Larch! There you have it folks, Looks like the region of 'Minso' has a robust bounty to look out for! That goes for everyone in the region, too! Let's all work together and bring this species of Pokemon back from true extinction, and capture the thief that would dare take such a prized possession!"

…

"And now, let's look at the Pokeatholon!"

…

The only movement either two of them made for the past hour was Vee's thumb press to turn off the TV. Both of them sat in disbelief and shock during the entirety of it. There was a constant clash of emotions that either wanted to make them throw a fit in rage, or sob on their pillows as they fell asleep to the depressing thought that they were outlaws in their own region. The only thing that broke out of their dizzy spells was a knock on the door.

"Food service!"

"U-Uh, just give me one minute!" Vee rushes straight into the Bathroom and slams the door behind her. Before going in, Kabuto tried to pull back and prevent her from going in- worrying about what she would do in there. "Don't worry, I have a plan." While outside of the Bathroom, Kabuto could see Nurse Joy growing impatient. She was tempted to just barge in there herself. "Do you want me to just do another rotation of food and then come back to see if you're ready?" Vee yelled straight from the Bathroom doors so she could hear her: "Yes! That's fine!" All Kabuto could hear was sharp snips and the toilet flushing over and over. He was growing both impatient and stressed enough, he tried slamming himself into the door to try and get it open. Unfortunately, just like glass windows, doors will not open by a small hermit colliding into it. Two door slams later, and the door flew open. "Sorry it took so long." Kabuto stood back in shock. He was stunned at sudden change, even having a second of false belief that it was still her.

Vee collected of her remaining trims of hair, and flushed all of it down. What remained on her head were only tiny pieces of hair to just barely protect her forehead. Vee also put the giant, hairy Scissors in the back pocket of her bag. For the first time in her whole life, Vee was able to swing her entire hood over her head, covering her hair and eyes.

"We should go."

Kabuto nodded and lunged into the bag. This time, more fearful than ever for peaking out of it.

Vee took a deep breath, and opened the door.

...


	3. Awoken Liberty: A New Agenda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This Chapter contains topics related to abuse as well as hints of self-harm. This chapter is not advised for those that are easily disturbed.

The door swung open without much force. It was so puny that just a small shove caused it to swing around and bash itself into the wall. Vee adjusted her bag so it was perfectly parallel to her hips, and tucked her hood farther down her face. With her hood over her eyes, she could only see about a few feet in front of her. It was like tunnel vision, but horizontal. From an outsider's perspective, all one could see was a shady character with only their nose and lips being visible.

The idea of Vee cutting her hair was one that she always wanted. She had been growing her hair since she was 12. Her reasons for growing it are hoarded in the back of her mind. This was the age when she started to never leave her home. She started taking online school, she stopped visiting her friends, and her only source of sunlight was when the sun conveniently shined through the window with the light directly into her face. It was one of the only reasons Torkoal became a superb alarm clock; with her asleep all day, he could spend as much time as needed getting up the stairs, and thinking of a fun way to make her jump every time. The moment Vee spotted the Scissors in the Bathroom, she knew she was going to use them before they had to check out. The convenience and seriousness of their situation helped verify the idea until she finally rushed towards them and took one step into reaching inner tranquility.

Vee took baby steps down the hall to make sure she didn't stupidly bump into anything. This did raise an eyebrow from a resident walking by, but she would have preferred that to happen, rather than anybody forcefully unveiling her and finding out she's on a wanted list. Before Vee planed to make it for the door, she wanted to make one quick stop. She approached the blue counter and conveyed

"Hi there! Welcome to the Pokemart! Since it seems like you don't have any Badges, we can only offer you anything from this list." The enthusiastic man pointed to one of the many cards that were taped onto the counter. All it contained were Potions and Pokeballs, for 300₽ and 200₽, respectively. Vee looked up with an unsure facial expression. She lowered her voice and asked him the first of many questions that would be soon to come:

"Badges?"

"Ohohoho, Pardon me!" The man laughed. "I suppose you aren't well aware of battling. Let me explain." The clerk, who's name was Miles, happily circled around the other worker there and leaned over his shoulder to get his attention. "Hey Maaaaadie, can you be a dear and hand me your trainer case?" Without a word, the gloomy gentleman reached in his coat and handed Miles a small, black box. Miles thanked him with a kiss on the cheek and frolicked back on the edge of the counter. Miles slithered his hands onto the lock and opened the little case. Inside it were eight small, but shiny pieces of jewelry. They all had their own unique shape, color, pattern, and even size.

"Theeese, are the eight Gym Badges of Minso- which is where we're in, obviously!" Even though Vee never had any liking towards fashion or design, something about these badges captured a wandering scent of intrigue in her. "Mr. Miles, where can I find these badges?"

Miles laughed again. He called Maddie to pull him a high stool and used it to lean outward of the counter. "My friend, you simply can't buy these, you have to earn them!" Vee put her arms near her mouth from both fear and temptation. Miles carried on:

"All across Minso are eight Gyms that you need to complete! Each one will give you their respective badge for you to use in all of the Pokemarts across the region." Vee was growing less intimidated by the exaggerated mannerisms of Miles and was becoming swayed by his charisma. She revealed a faint smile as Miles continued explaining what the badges were for.

"That's not all, sweetheart! Get all eight of them, and you'll be qualified to fight in the Pokemon League! Win in that, and you'll become certified in the Hall of Fame, and get accepted as a member of the I.R.P; also known as the "International Raj of Pokemon! There, you're recognized and respected for your vast knowledge of Pokemon, and will help lead the world into a better place."

The more Miles talked about this "I.R.P", the more Vee got excited about it. Unfortunately for Miles, most of his explaining didn't provide any use after she heard the words "respected" and "recognized." She didn't need to know anything else. She didn't care about what she had to do to get there, she now had a goal to make it to this group-union-dominion thingy. At first she stopped herself, thinking about what she would have to throw away or sacrifice in order to peruse this goal.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Yeah, I got nothing. I pretty much can't go anywhere but up at this point" She says in her mind. She confidently smirks at Miles who had just finished his lecture, and she relaxes her elbows on the counter. "Where do you think I should start?"

Miles and Maddie continued to blow Vee's mind. The discussion went from the Badges, to the Gyms, to the League, back to the Badges, and even Pokemon catching. They didn't give her too many specific answers on questions she had, but she was growing more and more anticipated to try and accomplish this monumental task. She knew that since she wasn't ever going back home, and now with a bounty on her, she could use this opportunity to start fresh. She's now embracing the outside world again, she has a new friend, and she even got a new haircut! "I'd be stupid not to try this!" Vee chuckled to herself.

The only big concern Vee had that she'd forgotten about during their discussion was the killing of innocent Pokemon. She couldn't fathom seeing the traumatic, disgusting image of that Pidove again. She had to find a way to do this without killing too many, or even any Pokemon. What ideas she had for that problem were tossed aside after the two boys offered her a few free Pokeballs for being "such a good sport." They quickly explained the basic guidelines of catching a Pokemon: Weaken it, Make sure there aren't any other Pokemon next to it, then throw a Pokeball to see if you capture it!

"Wait-wait" Vee abruptly stopped them after they concluded their explanation. "I don't have to kill them?!" Miles gives a loud laugh while he snickers into Maddie's shoulder. "No, not at all!" He replies. "Fighting other trainers is different, but thankfully most trainers don't grow attachments to their Pokemon. Otherwise, why would they use them to fight?"

Vee froze in place after hearing that sentence. Whispers of the boy who weeped for his loss hovered around her. "Fuck. Fuck. I told myself not to think about that, but here we go. DamnitDamnitDamnit..." Outside of her mind, the two clerks grew concern for the girl that was now pacing in a tiny circle. Maddie, surprisingly, got off his stool, bent over the counter, and calmly whispered: "Hey, it's okay." Vee looked up. The boy that was once slummed, mute, and monotone was now standing tall with a faint smile on his face. His eyes sparkled under the light and his hair straightened itself perfectly to match the faint shadow on his skin. Vee, mesmerized by the sight of him, stopped what she was doing. This face-off continued until he sat back down on his overly large stool. At that point, Vee had forgotten what she was contemplating to herself. "Umm, I'm Sorry." There was an extended pause before Miles cleared his throat and spoke up, ignoring what had just happened.

The rest of the conversation was satisfactory for all three. A new high, a new life, a new agenda. This was it. Vee made an extra purchase on two potions, and received a new map as her last free gift. Her old one only marked the towns adjacent to her home, so it was a perfect opportunity to get a new map. The conversation ended as Vee gave a sincere farewell to the two and weaseled out of the front door, making sure she nobody could see her swing her bag around to mysteriously talk to it.

The two boys whispered in eachother's ear as she was walking out.

"You know that was the one, right?"

"Yes darling, I know she's the one."

"Shouldn't we, uh, do something about her?"

Miles shook his head and gently placed his finger on the side of Maddie's neck. "Don't worry, love. You should be reminded; I always know exactly what I'm doing."

...

As soon as the coast was clear, Vee continued to peer inside her bag to talk to it. This continued until they found a resting area that was farther away from the rest of the town; a giant tree that had it's branches arched out into the sky. To their relief, there were no other people around, and the shade provided a peaceful comfort for Vee and her hermit friend. The two go on for awhile; Figuring out how they'd handle Pokemon, traveling, pretty much everything. Since their lives are now going to be revolved entirely around Pokemon, this kind of planning was a priority for Vee. They broke down their discussions by topics and tried to solve or find a solution to each.

The Pokemon Part: Was easy. While there were some specific things that had to be addressed from Vee, the two found easy workarounds to their concerns. Vee also felt confident that her bag could carry a decent amount of pocket monsters, as the extra pockets that weren't being filled up by a big crab, were dense.

The two made a simple rulelist for treating other Pokemon. They are as followed:

\- In order to keep the habitat of Pokemon steady and have minimal impact, only two Pokemon will be caught in every area.

\- For training, instead of beating up on defenseless, under-experienced Pokemon, they'll instead use different methods to become stronger.

\- The important one. Vee will make sure she doesn't let her own Pokemon die.

The Hard Part: Was Self-Care. Money was tight, and Vee had nothing in her bag for personal hygiene. Had she known that she was going out on an adventure, she'd probably pack better, but, you know. One plan they thought up of was to mark all of the towns or cities that had a Pokemap, and spend an evening at each. There are 26 towns in the region of Minso. Excluding her own town, and the town they were just at: Luxembourg, they would have 24 opportunities for self-care and possibly large meal opportunities, depending on what each Pokecenter has to offer. While the plan seemed pretty "Out there" as Kabuto named it, he eventually agreed to it since he didn't know the region any better than Vee did, and they didn't have any other choice in the matter.

The Identity part: Was even more difficult. "I don't know if they would allow a wanted criminal in the Hall of Fame." Kabuto smirked. Vee slumped her chin into her hands knowing he was right. "Then we'll just not worry about it."

"Say what?"

"We'll just wait until later to try and clear our names."

Kabuto gagged out noises as he tried to comprehend a sentence, but was too awestruck by her odd and demeaning answer. Kabuto looked straight into her tries until she remained silent. His red, hypnotic eyes only grew more intimidating under the tree's shade. He asked her once last time:

"Are you sure you want to do this."

This time, Vee took into the question into consideration. She knew her answer wasn't going to change, but she had thought about an honest and negotiable way to answer his question. She brought him closer to her, in almost nose-distance away, and replied with:

"I'm scared of doing this too, Kabuto. I want to do this because I know in the end, we'll both find the answers we're looking for."

Kabuto thought long about her words, and how methodically they dissected in his ear. While the two had entirely separate goals, they had at least one thing in common: They were alone. Vee couldn't go back to her friends, family; she had to leave everyone behind. As for Kabuto, in his mind, Lord Arceus only knows what happened in his past life. They have no where else to go, and embarking on an adventure might just be the way that they find what they're individually looking for.

After a duration of thinking, Kabuto looks right into her eyes again. No words, just a nod. A determined one. Vee hugs the creature into her collar. "Thank you. You're a pal I wish I've always had." Kabuto pointed to her and replied: "And I don't even know what pals I've had, but if they were anything like you, I must have been a happy Pokemon."

Vee giggled and hoisted herself up from the roots of the tree- With Kabuto jumping in it eagerly. Vee takes one last look at the map of Minso. Luxembourg town was near the edge of the region, with two main paths that branches from it: Route 1 and Route 4. Vee traced along the path with her finger. Following the path lead to what looked like the next area: "Pascal Boulevard." Vee's eyes widened when she read the name in her head. "Woah, they built an entire town on a dock? How did anyone not tell me about this? Even if it wasn't close, I have to check this place out." She smirks as she gently folds the map and sticks it on the very-end pocket on her bag. She takes a long breath, exhales, and swings her leg Southwest; the direction to Route 3.

. . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Hey dad?" A young girl whimpers as she knocks on his door with desperation. From a stranger's perspective, she looked to be no less than ten. Her father, however, thought differently.

"What is it, baby girl?"

"Can I tell you something?" She says. Behind his door, he can hear her daughter about to break down in tears. He gently opened the door, purposely making sure it doesn't open all of the way.

"I'm sorry darling, but I don't have time to talk. Daddy's, uh, busy. With Mommy."

"No! Dad! This is serious! And stop calling yourself that!"

He forcefully swings the door an extra quarter of the way out; enough to where she can see the rage and dissatisfaction from his eyes. The two stare each other down until the girl's eyes are too wet to see clearly. Without a word, her father slams the door in her face and ignores her second attempt to answer the door. She runs into her room, sobbing into her pillow. This had been the fourth time this week she would confront her father like that. Each attempt showed more frustration and impatience with her father. All she wanted was a short answer to her request. She couldn't even have that, could she?

From outside her home, she could hear her name being called. After drying her eyes and trying to look somewhat pleasant, she opened the window to find one of her neighbors waving in excitement. "What did your father have to say? Can we hang out tomorrow?" She was about to deliver another brisk sob, but she held it in just long enough, to where she can answer his question.

"No, he said I can't."

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . .

The walk at first was pleasant, at least compared to their other walks. Most of it had to due with less weight being on Vee's shoulders. While she still felt stressed about everything that has happened up until this point, she was able to push that aside and enjoy the carefree breeze of the forest. Route 3 was more compact than Route 1, which was the long route Vee had walked before stopping in Luxembourg town. This route, while smaller, was more intimidating by the sudden loud noises that would pop and sprawl around the easily-frightened novice trainer. She kept one arm grasped onto her bag, which was hugging itself into Vee's side. To be further prepared, she kept her bag zipped all the way open. There were no people around Vee during her walk on Route 3, but she didn't want to risk another situation where she had to show Kabuto again.

Continuing the path after only a brief moment passed, Vee found herself surrounded by tall grass. It went all the way up to her thighs, and she could hear something rustling around her. She stood still, and gently lowered her bag to the ground. "I think we've got a catch" she whispers inside it. When he heard his call, Kabuto tunneled out of the bag and let out a cry before landing on all fours and patrolled around the anxious, young adult. After awhile, the rustling stopped. The two's emotions went from battle-ready to concerned as they heard moans echo from the grass. The noise wasn't moving anymore, and it wasn't satisfactory to their ears. Vee sighs, pulls her hood back, and takes a large step into one of the large patches. It wasn't long before she found what was haunting them.

It was another bird. This one, however, stood out more than it should have.

It was an Owl, of all things.

The Owl didn't look hurt, but it was laying on it's side. Vee gasped at the sight, as she couldn't fathom seeing an innocent Pokemon looking so torn again. Without another word, Vee reaches to her side and quietly pulls a Pokeball from inside. As she got closer to throwing it, the more she contemplated to herself. She could feel her emotions getting to the best of her. On one shoulder, she thought: "Is taking advantage of this weak Pokemon really the right thing to do?" And on the other: "All trainers have to start somewhere! You were going to weaken them anyways!" She closed her eyes, looking away as she puts just enough effort to throwing the Pokeball. When she looks back, she could see the Pokemon get transported inside with relative ease.

Wiggle wiggle

…

Wiggle wiggle

…

Wiggle wiggle

…

Click!

The Pokeball, after fighting with itself, calmed and remained still in the grass. After the two heard the distinctive click, there was no longer a ruckus from inside the ball. "D-Did we do it?" Vee whispered to her curious pal. Kabuto eagerly took an extra step towards the ball, making sure he was blocking it's sight to her. From small steps to big gallops, Kabuto eventually sprinted towards the ball. From the top of the capsule, he could see an owl that was peacefully sitting inside. Something about the Owl was different than others, to Kabuto's dismay.

"You might wanna take a look at this." Vee crawls over to the startled shell and peers at the Pokemon inside.

It was missing a foot.

Vee's veins suddenly bulged out from her hands, as her pulse synchronized to her heavy breaths for air. "I didn't even do anything this time! How could we have even injured another one?"

She immediately pressed the big white button in the middle of the Pokeball and freed the disgruntled creature from within. Vee tossed the Pokeball aside and layed her now bloated hand onto the creature's head. The Owl's body was entirely round. It's feathers were a muddy brown, but the front of it had a crevice that was shaded like a vanilla white. It, like Kabuto, had two big, menacing eyes that were as red as Vee's sensitive heart. Unlike Kabuto, however, these eyes had small pupils in them. Surrounding it's eyes was a black crest that jarred out of it's head and formed that looked like lashes under it's eyes. The eyes never moved or changed expression, but it's pupils couldn't be any more different. They swerved and shape shifted all around has it opened it's eyes and cried out.

"Byeah! What are you two doing?!"

Both the trainer and her other Pokemon jumped back at the sudden third voice that entered the scene. Vee had no idea what she was more confused by: The fact that this Owl can talk, or the fact that this Owl was aggressive and was able to spring back on it's single foot instantly. The Owl continued his vent:

"What are you going to do now? Roast me? Cut me? Turn my soul into monkey chow?!" Vee tried to yell back in hopes that he'd calm down and listen to what she had to say:

"No! We're not! I just want to be a trainer!" The bird eased his aggressiveness when he heard the word "Trainer." To him, it was an angelic, mystifying feeling to finally hear those words again. He took a breath and recollected himself, standing as best of a balance he can.

The Owl, now standing tall on his foot, gave his condolences and introduced himself. "My old trainer called my species "Hoothoot." To say the least, he was a total brute." The Owl, that was once cowardly tuckered within himself, was now profound with his words and made rhythm to his foot as he spoke. "The disaster you can see here, was in place before you two appeared." Vee could feel her heart rise in relief. "Thank goodness" She said to herself. "I wouldn't want to literally kill two birds back-to-back." She inched closer to the bird that was now freely expressing movement and calmness in it's body.

"Mr. Hoothoot..." She politely said. "Could you explain to us how your leg, ummm, didn't... come to be?" The stutter and slipperiness of her words comes to an end when the owl gives her a disapointing answer.

"As i'd love to share some of my past, i'd prefer it be a conversation that didn't last. Maybe later i'll go into more detail on how I was harassed." The gentle voice that Hoothoot was soothing was enough to make Vee quit hesitating him to answer. She sighs and returns him back to the Pokeball for him to rest.

Thinking about it more, as they continued the path down Route 3, Vee wanted to find some way to make up for her troubles with her new Pokemon. She didn't feel like she did anything wrong, but she wanted to be nice to him so they could bond quicker. Vee knew one thing that was going to be important was for her to make sure her Pokemon were close and attached to her. To signify a new start for her and the owl, she called out Kabuto (who was relaxing in her bag after they started walking again) to come up with a nickname for the Hoothoot. The two go back and forth on a good name for him; "Beatrice", "Birdoh", "Calhoun", "2-inch Fury". Kabuto especially liked that last one. Vee wanted this nickname to specifically akin to her, even if she couldn't admit it to him. For her, it'd have to be something that related to her or gave flashes of memory.

. . .

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The two children eagerly rush inside from a day of outdoor activity. The young girl had never been invited to his house before, but he eagerly wanted to show her around. The boy greeted his mother as he playfully dragged the girl up to his room. Her eyes widened as soon as he opened the door.

The room was a colorful mosaic piece. Each piece of the wall was in different bright colors which reflected off the plain white ceiling. Surrounding the room were three separate closets that all contained his clothes, toys, and design projects respectively. In the middle of the room, there lied another bird; different from the ones she had seen before. The bird was lied down, but it kept it's face hidden from the guest. She questioned it, leading boy to gleefully call out: "It's okay, buddy! She's one of the good ones!"

The bird turned around. It's intimidating glare surprised the young girl as she jumped back and hid behind the boy. He grinned and held out his arm, as the chubby bird flew onto his shoulder, keeping close to it's trainer. The boy gestured towards him while labeling it. "This little fella came from Sinnoh. She's known as a 'Starly.' She's really shy over new people, but she's really sweet and protective. The young girl bends just enough so her eyes layed equally to Starly's. She steadily swoops her hand around the bird's head to try and pet her. She shrieks in response and bites her finger. It didn't hurt, but she, too, yelled from shock. The boy embarrassingly apologizes and gives the girl a warning, as his Starly takes awhile to become comfortable with.

Despite being ever-so slightly afraid of her, the young girl was still fascinated by how she looked. The bird had marks that stretched over her eyes, her feathers were either black or white, but still spread out around her. "Hey, I have a question." The boy looks back towards her.

"Yeah?"

"Does she have a special nickname? I know some owners or trainers to that to their Pokemon."

"Oh yeah! I forgot! I did give her one!"

"Really?! What is it?! Tell me, tell me!"

"Her name is-"

. . .

. . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"-Harmony." Vee whispers out the name again without any awareness. She liked it. No, she loved it. Her only worry was completely copying the name in disrespect for his Starly. She wanted Hoothoot's nickname to be a homage, rather than a complete copy.

She reached into her bag, and released the lone Pokemon that was in one of the several Pokeballs in her bag. The owl that was inside fluttered onto her shoulder.

"What is it now, trainer?"

"Nothing, I was just seeing how you were doing."

"Hoh-hum. I was just relaxing, but that's no brainer."

She sighs and asks him if he wanted to stay out of the Pokeball and talk while they walked. It was an offer he "just couldn't deny."

Kabuto didn't chime in to talk, which was fine for Vee. She found equal comfort talking to Hoothoot as she did with Kabuto. Hoothoot and her never discussed anything important, but she couldn't help but feel a small sense of joy when talking to him. Not even including the excited reactions containing: "I own this Pokemon now," and "He actually doesn't hate me!" The two talked until dusk. Vee hadn't noticed she was walking at a significantly slower pace than she was before she started talking to Hoothoot. In a generous offer, Hoothoot agreed to watch over the two while they slept. Vee tried to reassure if he wanted to do such a thing, in which he replied:

"My old trainer requested I do this all the time. He always thought that, when doing this, I would be in my prime." Vee gave concern but she thanked him with a gentle pet on the forehead. After Vee patted Kabuto to sleep, and whispered "goodnight" to his ear, she rested her head on the side of the bag that wouldn't disrupt him. Before her eyes finally shut, Hoothoot called for her one more time.

"Trainer, do you really think that's a good name for me?"

"Well, do you?"

He nodded. "It doesn't bring up any sign of debris. Just as long as you allow me to take time to get used to it, if you please."

"Of course!" She was tempted to make fun of his rhyming at that moment, but she still wanted respectable footing between the two; especially after what he agreed to do. As her eyes lower, she could faintly hear words echo from her ear.

"Goodnight, Trainer."

"Goodnight, Carmany."

. . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Suddenly, she jumped out of bed as she heard screaming from the room across from hers. This was different. This wasn't the same scream as it usually was, this was different. She could hear the scream's blood-curdling cry from beneath. She never liked going into their room, but she felt this time was important. She bashed her own door open and sprinted down the hall, not before grabbing her "special" knife first. Her newly adopted pet, Torkoal, kept hidden in his shell to try and block out the screams. She gave him a quick hug before continuing to rush down the hall. In no time at all, she made it. The screams were getting so loud, she could start to even hear other words that were being mumbled.

"I'msorryi'msorryIdodn'tknowwhatIdidPleasestopitPleasePleeeaseNoNoNOOO!"

The door was locked. Looking at her knife, she poked around at the key lock until she could get any kind of response from it.

Click!

It worked. Figetting the Knife out of the hole, she swung open the door. Her mind became flustered. She dropped her Knife out of shock, and she could only stay frozen as she was comprehending the disgust and horror in the sight she was observing with her very eyes. Before her mind became fully blank, the last comprehensible thing she could understand was one, frightening, loud word.

"HEEEEEEELP"

. . .

. . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Trainer!"

Carmany's force made Vee roll over, which immediately sprang her up and made her spin around in paranoia.

"Stop it, Trainer! Just listen!"

Vee stopped all her movement to listen. Everything at that point was mute. There was no wind to create any sound reminiscent to gusting, the leaves and forest remained silent- almost as if they too were trying to hear. She could hear it.

"Help! Heeelp!"

Vee panicked. She angrily faces Carmany, who gave an anxious expression back at her.

"How long have you been hearing this?!" She exclaims at him.

"It's been going on for what seems like forever now. I was trying to wake you, but you just remained restful, somehow."

She unleashes a frustrated deep breath as she aggressively heaves her bag and swings it onto her hips, carelessly harming the sleeping creature inside of it. He pops out of the bag out of curiosity and annoyance. "What was that for?! What's going on?!" Vee glares at the shell and then tilts her head up without a word. She lowers her arm towards the ground so Carmany can hop up her arm to her shoulder. "No, seriously, what's going on?!" This time, Kabuto pinches her arm to try and get her attention. Still, no answer. It wasn't what was hurting her the most at that moment.

She heaves her hood above her, this time only covering her eyebrows, and darts to the screams that echoed in the dark.

...


End file.
